Super Mario Kart

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Super Mario Kart
Super Mario Kart Logo.png
Super Mario Kart logo
Studio Nintendo EAD
Publisher Nintendo
Erstveröffent-
lichung
JapanJapanAugust 27, 1992 September 1, 1992 January 21, 1993
North AmericaNorth America
EuropeEurope
platform SNES
genre Racing game
Game mode Single player , multiplayer
control SNES controller
medium SNES module
language Japanese, English
Age rating
USK released from 0
PEGI recommended from 3 years
information The game is also available for the Virtual Console .

Super Mario Kart ( Japanese ス ー パ ー マ リ オ カ ー ト , Hepburn : Sūpā Mario Kāto ) is the first funracer (racing game) in the Mario Kart series. Nintendo released it in Japan and the US in 1992, and in Europe in 1993 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System .

Gameplay

Mario Kart GP

In Grand Prix mode, the player can participate in four different racing series, the "Cups" (Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, Star Cup, in three levels of difficulty (50 cm³, 100 cm³ & 150 cm³; the last one has to be activated) & Special Cup; the last one has to be activated first), which in turn consist of five individual races. The races are held on different routes and each consist of five laps. The player competes against seven AIs . In each race, the player must have achieved at least fourth place in order to be able to start the next race. If you cross the finish line in fifth place at most, you lose a life, but can then try the race again. Of these lives, three are available at the beginning; however, these can be topped up in the course of a cup by achieving the same position in 3 races (even if you fail a route and finish last three times, you get another chance). If you lose all lives, the cup will end prematurely. After each race you receive points for the place you have achieved. The driver is awarded nine points for first place, six for second place, three points for third place and one point for fourth place. From fifth place onwards, you no longer receive any points and lose a life. The driver who collected the most points after five races wins the cup. At the end of a cup, the award ceremony takes place where the victorious driver is presented with his trophy .

Time trial

In the time trial, the player can compete in a time trial on a selected route. The total time and the lap time are measured and the best results are saved in a list of the best. There are no items available for the time trial. However, some obstacles that hinder the drivers at the Grand Prix have been removed during the time trial.

Match Race

Here two players can race against each other. The winner here is whoever crosses the finish line first after five laps.

Battle mode

In battle mode, two players can compete against each other. Each player is equipped with three balloons. The aim here is to hit the other player with the help of items and so make the balloons burst. The winner is whoever was able to burst all the balloons of the opponent first. The battle mode has four separate courses.

driver

The eight Nintendo characters Mario , Luigi , Bowser , Princess Peach , Yoshi , Koopa , Toad and Donkey Kong Jr. are available as drivers for Super Mario Kart . Princess Peach and Koopa are referred to in the game as Princess and Koopa Troopa. The drivers have different characteristics.

driver acceleration Top speed Weight Curves
Mario ** ** ** **
Luigi ** ** ** **
Bowser * *** *** *
Donkey Kong Jr. * *** *** *
Princess Peach *** * ** **
Yoshi *** * ** **
Koopa ** ** * ***
Toad ** ** * ***

* = low ** = medium *** = high

Items

Several items are available to the player during a race that can have a positive effect on the outcome of the race.

  • Red tanks : These are shot at opponents. If you hit an opponent, it will skid and lose a lot of speed. Red tanks chase the enemy.
  • Green tanks : have the same effect as red tanks, but they do not pursue the enemy. But they can ricochet off the gangs and be thrown back.
  • Banana peels : These are thrown on the track. If an opponent runs over it, it will skid.
  • Feather : A feather allows the player to jump over obstacles.
  • Pilz : Accelerates the driver briefly.
  • Stern : Makes the driver invulnerable for a short time. If an opponent touches an invulnerable driver, he will skid.
  • Blitz : This makes the opponents shrink. If you touch one of them after the flash has been activated, the affected driver will skid.

The effects of the items star and lightning are very effective, so they can usually only be obtained by the last placed drivers. In addition to these items, drivers can collect coins. These coins increase the maximum speed of the karts. If the number of coins exceeds 10, the karts can no longer be accelerated. However, coins are also withdrawn from the driver, for example due to an accident.

stretch

There are a total of 20 race tracks in Super Mario Kart. They are integrated into the game and cannot be expanded. All 20 routes are divided into 4 cups that can be mastered in one and two-player mode.

Racetracks 0
Mushroom cup Flowers cup Star cup Special cup
Mario's slope 1 Chocolate Island 1 Koopa Beach 1 Donut level 3
Donut level 1 Ghost Valley 2 Chocolate Island 2 Koopa Beach 2
Ghost Valley 1 Donut level 2 Vanilla Lake 1 Ghost Valley 3
Bowser's Fortress 1 Bowser's Fortress 2 Bowser's Fortress 3 Vanilla Lake 2
Mario's slope 2 Mario's slope 3 Mario's slope 4 Rainbow boulevard

reception

Rating mirror
Website Rating
GameRankings 93.60 / 100
IGN Entertainment 9.0 / 10
NintendoLife 9.0 / 10
GameFAQs 9.4 / 10
Gamefreaks365 8.5 / 10
Videogamecritic Grade A +
Classic zone 10/10
Nexgam 9.7 / 10
Mariofans 42/50

About 8.76 million units of Super Mario Kart were sold. This makes it the fourth most successful SNES game after Super Mario World , Super Mario All-Stars and Donkey Kong Country .

In addition to the successful sales figures, the reviews of Super Mario Kart were consistently positive.

“Super Mario Kart is a great game that laid one of the most important foundations for today's racing games. Many games tried to imitate it, even to top it, but they all failed. Initially, the control is a point of getting used to - [...]. But once you're ready, you can sit back and enjoy this wonderful game in the various game modes. The routes are easy, but still a lot of fun and challenge the player from cup to cup more. However, everyone should convince themselves of the other strengths of the game, because an hour of playing time of this title says more than 1000 words. "

- toadtown.de

“The game is easy to handle and is still a lot of fun even after hours of gaming, the graphics are very nicely done and the special skills of the individual drivers are also well done. [...] "

- classic-zone.de

“As soon as the name“ Super Mario Kart ”is mentioned, most video gamers burst into screams of joy. No game can boast such a large fan base. When the game was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), nobody expected such a success. When eight of the most popular Nintendo characters get into their karts, 100% fun is guaranteed. "

- nexgam.de

development

Super Mario Kart was developed by Nintendo EAD , publisher was Nintendo . The game's producers were Shigeru Miyamoto and Tadashi Sugiyama, Hideki Konno was appointed director and former Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi was the executive producer . The basic idea for Super Mario Kart came from the consideration of creating a two-player racing game similar to the single-player racing game F-Zero .

Technical

Super Mario Kart was one of the first games to use the so-called Mode 7 . This is a process in which the hardware of the SNES calculates a two-dimensional image, in Mario Kart the race track, in such a way that a three-dimensional impression is created by zooming and rotating. The display of height differences is not possible with this technique. An additional processor is built into the game module for mode 7 , which supports the main processor of the SNES in the graphic display.

censorship

The EU and US versions of Super Mario Kart have been censored in two places by Nintendo . The Japanese version shows drivers Bowser and Peach drinking champagne after a Grand Prix victory. In the EU and US versions this has been changed so that the characters only throw the bottle in the air or swing it.

Awards

Super Mario Kart has won several awards:

  • 19th place out of 200 in the category Best Game of its Time (EGM - Edition 200)
  • 35th place in the Top 100 Best Games of All Time category ( Game Informer - Issue 100, August 2001)
  • Best SNES game from 1992 (Powerplay - Edition 02/1993)

championship

Every year in August, Nintendo organizes an official Super Mario Kart World Championship in France, where players can compete against each other in time trial and multiplayer modes.

The winners of the championships were, for example, the German Frederic Baumeister (1995, 1996), the French Pierre Provonce (1994, 1997, 1998) and the American Seth McGriffin (1993).

New releases

Super Mario Kart is the Virtual Console of Nintendo Wii acquirable for 800 Wii Points. There the game was made available for download on June 9, 2009 in Japan, on November 23, 2009 in America and on April 2, 2010 in Europe . A memory image of Super Mario Kart can be downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel and played on a Virtual Console emulator . The game can be controlled with both the Wii Classic controller and the Nintendo GameCube controller.

Super Mario Kart is also available on the Wii U's Virtual Console . The game can be downloaded from the so-called “ eShop ” since March 27, 2014 (Europe) and offered a discount on Mario Kart 8 . The Wii-U version is the US version of the game that was released in the US in 1992 . The game has not been graphically revised, but is still being used on the Wii U GamePad and the other controllers. Using the GamePad, it can be played both with and without a TV screen.

The game is also installed on the Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which was released in 2017, along with 20 other SNES games.

On September 6th at 1:00 am, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Nintendo Switch Online app for Nintendo Switch , which also has the game installed, was released. It is the first time that the game can be played online.

Open source remake

In 2010 the remake SuperTuxKart was released, which is named after the Linux mascot Tux contained in the game .

Allusions to other games

  • Super Mario World - Several references can be found in the game. The three Donut Plains routes allude to the second world of the same name in Super Mario World. The Ghost Valleys include a remix of the haunted house music from Super Mario World and the Bowser Castles a remix of the final battle music.

Allusions to this game

  • Mario Kart: Super Circuit - All tracks have been recycled, but the backgrounds have been adapted to the new tracks from Mario Kartː Super Circuit.
  • Mario Kart DS - In the following edition of the series,four tracks from SMK will appear in retro cupswith Mario Circuit 1 , Donut Plains 1 , Koopa Beach 2 and Choco Island 2 .
  • There are also retro tracks in Mario Kart Wii again, there are Ghost Valley 2 and Mario Circuit 3 .
  • There are also retro tracks in Mario Kart 7 , here it is Mario Circuit 2 and Rainbow Road .
  • There are also retro tracks in Mario Kart 8 again, there are Donut Plains 3 and Rainbow Road in the DLCs .

Individual evidence

  1. Review of Super Mario Kart ( English ) GameRankings . Retrieved November 23, 2013.
  2. Review of Super Mario Kart ( English ) IGN . Retrieved November 23, 2013.
  3. Darren Calvert: Review of Super Mario Kart (Virtual Console Version) ( English ) nintendolife.com. November 24, 2009. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
  4. Review of Super Mario Kart ( English ) GameFAQs . Retrieved November 23, 2013.
  5. Kyle Bell: Review of Super Mario Kart ( English ) gamefreaks365.com. July 4, 2005. Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 23, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gamefreaks365.com
  6. Review of Super Mario Kart ( English ) videogamecritic.com. Archived from the original on November 22, 2013. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 23, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / videogamecritic.com
  7. a b Sanguinus: Review of Super Mario Kart . classic-zone.de. Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 23, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.classic-zone.de
  8. a b Review of Super Mario Kart . nexgam.de. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
  9. Jonathan Kocher: Super Mario Kart - Review . mariofans.de. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 23, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mariofans.de
  10. The most successful games of the NES and SNES . GameStar . Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 23, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gamestar.de
  11. List-All: Best Selling SNES Games ( English ) Listal. April 8, 2008. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
  12. Blank: Super Mario Kart - Review . toadtown.de. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 23, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.toadtown.de
  13. Credits from Super Mario Kart ( English ) MobyGames . Retrieved November 23, 2013.
  14. Iwata Asks - Mario Kart Wii ( English ) Nintendo . Retrieved November 23, 2013.
  15. Censorship of Super Mario Kart . schnittberichte.com. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
  16. Trivia to Super Mario Kart ( English ) MobyGames . Retrieved November 23, 2013.
  17. Ben Sillis: Retro eSports: Five still strong classics . Red Bull . September 5, 2014. Retrieved November 26, 2014.
  18. Michael Obermeier: SNES Mini - Video: All games & information about the Nintendo Classic Mini Super NES . GameStar . June 29, 2017. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  19. ^ Joerg Henrichs, Marianne Gagnon: SuperTuxKart 0.7 Released ( English ) Archived News. December 20, 2010. Retrieved April 28, 2012.

Web links